Dad calls for review into school transport delays

The father of a boy with special educational needs has called for an independent review into delays in organising home-to-school transport.

Richard said his son, Archie, who is autistic, had already missed most of the first month of this school year when transport arrived "with no warning" outside their home last week.

Oxfordshire's Labour MPs, Anneliese Dodds and Sean Woodcock, said Richard's family was among 170 across the county experiencing similar issues.

Oxfordshire County Council said it was "working extremely hard" to deal with roughly 500 applications filed after its August deadline "as quickly as possible".

The "vast majority" of the county's 8,000 school transport arrangements had been in place ahead of September, the authority said.

But Richard said: "The beginning of the school term is not a surprise - it happens every year.

"How can the council not be prepared and ready for this?"

Local authorities in England are legally required to arrange funded transport for many SEND children under education, health and care plans.

In Oxfordshire, the county council is responsible for such arrangements, but this year marks the third that parents have reported delays with the process - with one campaigner telling the BBC it was "worse than ever".

Richard said there were "some very serious questions that need answering" by the county council regarding this year's issues.

"With the best will to the county council, I think this really needs to be conducted independently," he said.

He said this should investigate whether systems were in place to ensure council contractors "can actually fulfil the contracts they've been awarded".

The inquiry should also look into "what systems are in place to ensure this doesn't happen again", he added.

In a statement, the county council said it had organised transport for the thousands of eligible children ahead of September, attributing the delays with applications lodged after its deadline.

"Our team is working extremely hard to complete arrangements for these late applications as quickly as possible, to conclude no later than when children return to school following the half term break," it said.

Earlier this week, Dodds and Woodcock said they were "deeply concerned" that there were still "around 170 families still lack certainty about how their children will get to school" across Oxfordshire.

"Many parents have already spent weeks making alternative arrangements, at considerable personal, financial and emotional cost," the pair said.

"Families need confidence that this situation will be resolved urgently and that lessons will be learned to prevent similar disruption in future years."